wfn.org | ALC Noticias July 12 2004 Thailand, Costa Rica, El Salvador,

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ALC NEWS SERVICE
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org

CONTENT
THAILAND: Ecumenical Event Concludes on HIV/AIDS in Bangkok
Our struggle against AIDS is an act of faith, affirm participants in the
event
COSTA RICA:  Central American Churches speak out against Free Trade
Agreement with the United States
EL SALVADOR: Evangelicals oppose sending more Salvadoran soldiers to Iraq
PERU: Evangelical communicators recognize limitations
CUBA: Celebration of 200 years of the United Bible Society

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THAILAND
Ecumenical Event Concludes on HIV/AIDS in Bangkok
Our struggle against AIDS is an act of faith, affirm participants in the
event

By Manuel Quintero

Bangkok/July 10.- "Our action against AIDS is an act of faith; an act of
faith because we are sure that we will overcome the stigma and the
discrimination and we will change history," said Caritas International
representative, Italian Robert Vitillo when he summarized the main fruits of
the event. "Access for everyone: a response from the community of faith."

The event brought close to 300 Christians from across the globe to the
capital of Thailand July 9 - 10, to prepare for the XV International
Conference on AIDS.

The balance of two intense days of work confirmed that communities of faith
have a particular contribution to make in the world battle against HIV and
AIDs, fundamentally based on the moral and ethical voices of their leaders
and their capacity for pastoral care.

The experiences that were shared from countries like Zambia, Serbia and
Uganda, as well as initiatives in Africa and Asia, demonstrate that
Churches, when they unite together and with other organizations, strengthen
the life of the community and make a significant contribution to programs
that combat HIV and AIDs.

"We have deepened our awareness of our role as communities of faith, sharing
experiences and analysis about issues of an ethical and social nature and
strengthening cooperation among our Churches and organizations," added
Vitillo.

Participants at the meeting also affirmed their commitment to constructing
communities of faith that are truly inclusive, underlining that the "cross
of Christ is accessible to all," and that the healing ministry of the Church
cannot wait any longer.

The central element of this healing practice, encouraged by "horizontal
compassion" is healing contact, following the example of Jesus, which Dr.
Mercy Odoyuye spoke of during the inaugural conference.

Just like in the passage of Mark 1, 40-42, Churches feel moved by compassion
and extend their hands toward those who are feeling stigmatized and
discriminated against because they have HIV and AIDs. Therefore, in the
closing worship service, those who made a sign of penitence toward the
cross, formed in the center of the room with two huge pieces of fabric and
covered with candles, felt other hands on their shoulders in an expression
of solidarity and compassion.

"When we met around the cross we know that healing does not necessary
represent a cure. It could be that we must continue with our burden but our
wounds are incorporated into the wounds of Christ, and our weakening becomes
confused with the weakened body of our Lord," read one of the celebrants,
who recalled that no one is excluded from Christ's cross.

Participants in the workshop prayed for healing, for themselves and for many
others around the world, "from the poverty that exposes millions to HIV and
AIDS and the ethnic and civil conflicts with their tragic consequences of
violated women and girls." They also asked for healing for all the saddened
hearts and spirits that "strip the life of any meaning."

"We have promoted an ecumenical and faith presence in the heart of the world
community in the battle against HIV and AIDs and we have done so by means of
prayer, reflection, debate and sharing of experiences," said  Vitillo.

WEAK PRESENCE FROM  LATIN AMERICA

The main element missing from this event was the Latin American Church, said
Carlos Balcaceres, a Salvadoran Catholic lay worker and official from
Catholic Relief Services in this Central American country.

In his opinion, this absence could be due to the fact that in the face of
the numbers from Africa and Asia, the problem of HIV and AIDs could seem
less important on the Latin American continent.

However, the official figures are also not a faithful reflection of reality.
In El Salvador, for example, the figures refer to a population with HIV or
AIDS of less than 13,000 people when serious studies indicate that the
figure is 30,000 he said.

In fact, a study held at the end of 2003 by UNAIDS showed that in 12 Latin
American countries, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Belize and
Honduras, 1% of pregnant women have HIV, a percentage only surpassed by
African countries.

AIDS has become the leading cause of death in those countries, with Haiti
the most affected, with 6 percent of the population infected with HIV. Last
year some 200,000 people were infected in the continent, bringing the total
to more than 2 million adults. In the same period, at least 100,000 people
died of AIDS.

The UNAIDS report, while it recognizes that the continent has made
significant progress in providing care and treatment, emphasizes that the
epidemic runs the risk of swiftly growing due to a lack of policies and
efficient responses.

One of these policies, according to Balcaceres, should be aimed at
specialized work with adolescents.

In El Salvador, he commented, Catholic Relief Services cooperates with
technical and financial assistance with various Catholic organizations to
"break the cycle of traditional behaviors in which the erroneous notions and
values of machismo reign, which lead adolescents to be more inclined to
premature and irresponsible sexual relations, converting them into a risk
group in the face of HIV, he said.

Now, the challenge for Latin American Churches consists in emphasizing what
unites us and developing a competent compassion to advance in the battle
against HIV and AIDs, he concluded.

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COSTA RICA
Central American Churches speak out against Free Trade Agreement with the
United States

SAN JOSE, Jul 9 (alc). Evangelical Churches from Nicaragua, Panama and Costa
Rica, members of the Sub-Central American region of the Latin American
Council of Churches (CLAI) published a pastoral letter rejecting the Free
Trade Agreement between the region and the United States, signed by their
governments, which is pending ratification by the US Congress.

The position was adopted in the "Sub-regional Workshop on Free Trade
Agreements and Pastoral Implications," held July 6 - 8 in San Jose, with the
presence of representatives from Churches in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and
Panama.

During the workshop, 35 representatives analyzed the main concepts and
intentions that the treaty seeks and expressed their indignation about the
hidden way the document was negotiated in the past months.

Reality has challenged us. The Word of God has illuminated us. Signing this
letter is an act of full awareness and responsibility, they said.

The pastoral letter was signed by representatives from the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Costa Rica, the Central American Lutheran Mission, the
Costa Rican Lutheran Church, the Episcopal Church of Costa Rica, the Baptist
Theological Seminary of Costa Rica, the Christian Mission Church of
Nicaragua.

It was also signed by the Costa Rican Methodist Wesleyan Church, the
Nicaraguan "Faith and Hope Lutheran Church, the Costa Rican Presbyterian
Church, the Emaus Community, the Episcopal Church of Panama, the Latin
American Biblical University and the Friends for Peace Center.

According to the Letter the experience of Free Trade Agreements in Latin
America and the Caribbean has been incompatible with the development of
human life. In the case of Mexico, 10 years after signing the NAFTA
agreement, the results have been disastrous: unequal competition, reduction
of production subsidies, collapse of food autonomy, strong decrease of
minimum wage and ranching, among others.

It affirmed that all human institutions, even those attributed to God, are
and should be for the development of life and not the opposite, as what does
not contribute to human development is not Christian or desirable and the
exclusion of people is foreign to the spirit of the Gospel.

Therefore, an economic system that is not capable of feeding everyone under
its care cannot be legitimate as it goes against the justice of the Kingdom
of God.
Taking these theological arguments into account, we reject the Free Trade
Agreement between Central America and the United States, among other
reasons, because it is not true that the best way to create jobs is through
foreign companies, because the social cost is greater than the employment
generation.

Moreover, it does not eliminate the subsidies for US farming corporations
and promotes the irrational exploitation of natural resources, which
threatens the environment. The FTA will gradually eliminate access to
generic medicine for social security institutions, according to the Pastoral
Letter.

The document calls on Churches and civil society institutions to join
together in common actions, such as a campaign to "not consume" products
from major exporters and transnational companies that support the FTA.

It also calls on them to defend the Rule of Law, national sovereignty and
natural resources, reporting about the legal, political and economic
strategies of transnational companies and governments that promote legal and
constitutional reforms in each Central American country, thereby
detrimentally affecting public service institutions and the rights of
residents.

Finally, it appeals to the solidarity of US Churches so that they lobby
their congregations and Congress to reject the FTA-CA-USA because it does
not bring together minimum conditions of justice and equity, nor does it
benefit our peoples.

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EL SALVADOR
Evangelicals oppose sending more Salvadoran soldiers to Iraq

SAN SALVADOR, Julio 7, 2004 (alc). The National Church Council of El
Salvador (CNI) presented a petition to the Legislative Assembly lobbying it
not to approve sending a third contingent of Salvadoran troops to Iraq.
Exactly one year ago, the Francisco Flores government sent the first
contingent of 380 soldiers.

Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez explained that as "historic Churches we are
concerned about the decision of sending a third contingent of Salvadoran
troops to Iraq when we know that the situation in that country is extremely
dangerous."

"It is for this reason that we find ourselves here, making this call for
reflection in the name of hundreds of mothers and relatives of these
soldiers that come to our Church, to ask that we manifest this and demand
their return home, to El Salvador," he added.

The CNI, formed in 1991, groups together the Lutheran, Anglican Episcopal
and Calvinist Reform Churches. The petition was accompanied by legislators
Teodoro Pineada and Vinicio Peqate, of the United Democratic Center and
Carlos Castaqeda of the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional.

The Rev. Ricardo Cornejo, Lutheran pastor, underlined that this action is
"also an act of solidarity with the Iraqi people who have suffered a bloody
military intervention and are resisting. We are in action and prayer in
solidarity with the Iraqi people, with the people of Afghanistan and with
the people of Palestine," he said.

"We are speaking out in favor of world peace. It is time to recover the role
of international law over that of aggression as well as the international
institutionality of the United Nations, above unilateral decisions made by
major powers, in this case the United States," said Cornejo.

For his part, the Rev. Roberto Pineda, also Lutheran said that next week a
Mesoamerican Church Forum will be held as an event leading up to the V
Mesoamerican Forum to take place July 19 - 21.

In all of these activities, he said, we are going to pray for peace in Iraq.
And so that the people of Iraq are allowed to freely choose their destiny as
there cannot be true independence in a country occupied militarily by
foreign troops, as is the situation in Iraq. We are in favor of peace and
the independence of Iraq, he said.

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PERU
Evangelical communicators recognize limitations

LIMA, Julio 6, 2004 (alc). The Evangelical Church has had an important
irruption in the Peruvian public scene, however, it has achieved little
influence in political structures, according to the final declaration of a
forum of Evangelical communicators that was held July 1-3 in the framework
of the Congress of the Peruvian chapter of the Iber-American Confederation
of Communicators and Mass Christian Media (COICOM).

In the congress there were also forums on evangelism, leadership and
Christian artists.

The Evangelical Church is increasingly using the media to communicate the
Gospel, but still in an insufficient and limited away, only reaching a
sector of the Church and not society, added the document.

The document indicated that communication is a fundamental factor in the
development of current day society, and that the different media have become
actors from which power relations are constructed.

Communicators criticize that the media does not seek to offer an education
in values but rather have become windows that exacerbate violence,
pornography, injustice etc.

Within this situation, they recognize that there is a limited presence of
Christian communicators in mass media and that Evangelical communication
media have not managed to reach a public beyond that of the Church because
Christian productions, with a few exceptions, lack the technical quality
that facilitate their access to mass secular media.

They criticize the inexistence of Evangelical communication strategies and
the lack of continuous training of communicators in the Churches.

In this panorama, the declaration stated "We Christian communicators are
challenged to convert ourselves in strategic advisors and executors of
Church leadership and to be creative and to make proposals in the renewal of
the language and methodologies used to date in communication, from the
Evangelical sector."

We are called, it concluded, to exercise communication with professional and
competitive excellence, to construct a message that affirms life, human
dignity and the integrity of each human being and all of creation. At the
same time to influence society in order to improve it with Christian values
and affirm our prophetic responsibility.

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CUBA
Celebration of 200 years of the United Bible Society

By Josi Aurelio Paz

HAVANA, July 6, 2004 (alc). Some 15,000 Bicentenary Bibles (Reina Valera in
Spanish) will be distributed in Cuba as part of the activities to mark the
200th anniversary of the 200 United Bible Societies.

The Bibles include an introduction about the life and work of Mary Jones and
the history of the 200 years and will be given to congregations in different
Evangelical denominations on the Island by the Cuban Council of Churches'
Biblical Commission.

Mary Jones was a Welsh girl who, at a young age, felt the desire to learn
God's word and
spent six years carrying out different tasks such as caring for children,
fixing clothes, gathering wood and even selling eggs to buy her own Bible.

According to the story she walked 40 kilometers barefoot to the place they
were being sold only to be disappointed when she found that they had all
been bought.
Her inconsolable cry moved a pastor who decided to give her a copy and this
lead several people to found a Bible Society. It was organized in 1804
giving rise to a tradition of service to disseminate the Sacred Scriptures.

While in the beginning the Bible or parts of it were only translated into 72
languages and very few had a complete translation, today the UBS distributes
around 600 million Scriptures a year and it is estimated that at least part
of the Bible has been translated into 2,303 languages. The SBU is currently
working on more than 800 translation projects.

Under the slogan, "In a Changing World, the Word Remains the Same," the CIC
Bible Commission held two Bible Sciences workshops with UBS translations and
with the participation of some 300 pastors from across the nation.

They also published a flyer about the life of Mary Jones and distributed
10,000 copies of the magazine The Bible in the Americas, an edition designed
to emphasize 200 years of the ministry of the United Bible Societies.

The Rev. Jose Lopez, secretary general of the CIC Bible Commission, when
questioned about the event said that "our relationship with the UBS has been
a relationship of reciprocal trust that has grown over time in permanent
dialogue. The directors have encouraged other editorial agencies to send
material to Cuba, which has increased the volume of literature that we
receive.

"I have met brothers and sister from many countries who have dedicated their
entire lives to this work and have done so with true sacrifices. I have been
moved by testimonies of very poor people who, perhaps following the example
of Mary Jones, give their offerings so that the work continues forward.

  "And, what is the most important: as a pastor and as part of the Council's
Bible Council, I have been able to admire the impact and the fruit of the
Sacred Scriptures in the lives of thousands of people transformed, who
manifest this change and their results no matter where you find them,"
concluded Lopez.

Different initiatives are being held around the world for the anniversary.
In many countries they are presenting the musical "make me an instrument,"
that narrates the history of Mary Jones and a competition that emphasizes
the importance of making the Bible available to everyone, in a language they
can understand and for a price they can afford.

The official celebration is planned for the UBS World Assembly, to be held
in Newport, England next August.
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